Woman killed by dog given to her for mental health help, inquest hears

Keira Ladlow described as a ‘warm, gentle and kind-hearted lady’

Staffordshire bull terrier cross had been taken in as a rescue, Birmingham Coroners’ Court heard (Google Street View)

A young woman was mauled to death by a family rescue dog she was looking after during the coronavirus pandemic, an inquest heard on Thursday.

Keira Ladlow, 21, a keen kickboxer, was on furlough from her job at Ladbrokes and was looking after the Staffordshire bull terrier cross called Gucci when it attacked her on 5 February this year.

Her brother, Kayden Barrett, had brought home the dog to help alleviate Ms Ladlow’s emotional unstable personality disorder.

At the time, she was staying at her brother’s home in Sunbeam Way, Kitts Green, in Birmingham.

Mr Barrett told Birmingham Coroners' Court that he returned from work on 5 February at 2pm and found his sister lying face down in the sitting room with Gucci “cowering in the corner”.

Mr Barrett had rehomed Gucci after finding out it was being given away after it bit another dog, the inquest heard. The animal had "settled in" well and had bonded with him and his sister, he added.

In a statement read out at the inquest, Mr Barrett said. “I've always protected her. I feel responsible even though there was nothing I could have done that day.”

Mr Barrett called the police and told officers his dog had killed his sister. The dog was seized and destroyed.

The night before she died, Ms Ladlow told her brother she felt Gucci was going to bite her. The next morning he left for work with Gucci asleep in bed next to his sister.

When he returned, water was pouring through the ceiling from the shower and her body was on the floor “covered in blood”.

Ms Ladlow’s cousin, Neyve Walsh, who organised a fundraiser for her funeral in February, described her as a “warm, gentle and kind-hearted lady, who loved all animals.”

“Ironically the animal that she worked hard to protect would take her life in such an unfathomable way,” she wrote on her Gofundme page.

Recording a narrative verdict, Birmingham assistant coroner Rebecca Ollivere said that “nobody will ever know what caused the tragic shift” in events that day.

Additional reporting by SWNS